Richard Pitino has brought some legitimacy and relevancy to the Minnesota Golden Gophers. He led the Gophers to a school record 25 wins last year* (The 1997 Final Four, #1 seed season was vacated) Richie Pitino’s first recruiting class with a full recruiting cycle yielded a very stellar class. Here are the Golden Gophers 2015 commits (National rank):
PG Kevin Dorsey (No. 86)
SG Dupree McBrayer (No. 135)
PG Jarvis Johnson (NR 3-star)
PF Jonathan Nwankwo (NR 3-star)
Here’s how the Big Ten was represented in the recruiting rankings according to 24/7 Sports: Ohio State #7, Illinois #8, Michigan State #11, Nebraska #23, Wisconsin #30, Penn State #31, Minnesota #36, Northwestern #43 and Indiana #49. Rivals had OSU #8, MSU #12 and the Illini #16 in their top 25
The Golden Gophers need backcourt help in the future and that’s what Pitino landed here. The strength of this year’s team is in the backcourt, but they will be gone soon so reinforcements will be needed soon. Dorsey is a great off the dribble playmaker. He’s a four-star and top-100 national recruit by both ESPN, 247 Sports and Rivals.com.
“Kevin Dorsey has the ability to be one of the best on-ball defenders in the country,” said Richard Pitino.
“He also has the ability to get by anybody and create offense in the lane.”
The 6-1 Johnson is also rated a four-star prospect and one of the top prep players in the state of Minnesota.
“Jarvis Johnson has grown up a Gopher fan his whole life,” commented Pitino the Younger.
McBrayer, a 6-4 guard, is spending the upcoming season at prep school after graduating from the Patrick School.
Nwankwo (pronounced WAN-kwo) is rated a four-star prospect by ESPN, and the 6-10 post player is spending the season at Victory Rock Prep after a high school career at Monsignor Scanlan in the Bronx. Born in Nigeria, Nwankwo is rated by ESPN as the 29th-best center prospect in the nation.
“Jonathan Nwankwo has a college-ready body and will bring a lot to our team on day one when he steps on campus,” said Richard Pitino.
With the class, and the direction the program is headed under Richard Pitino…the son also rises.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and very often writes The Sports Bank.net ,which is partners with Fox Sports. Read his features stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks). His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN 2